


these walls you built, these gates I protect

by oh_simone



Series: Songs About Jack [2]
Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Psychic Abilities, accidentally psychic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oh_simone/pseuds/oh_simone
Summary: Jack accidentally gains the ability to hear people's thoughts and he's just straight up not having a good time.Enter Peggy Carter.
Relationships: Peggy Carter & Jack Thompson
Series: Songs About Jack [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981484
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38
Collections: Hold Me: A Comfort Prompfest





	these walls you built, these gates I protect

**Author's Note:**

> for prompt "a moment of quiet down time after (or between) disasters"

The noise was audible as soon as the elevator doors opened. Muffled but chaotic, Peggy could pick out music as well as a radio program, the announcer’s cheerful patter jabbering over the thrashing of strings. As she hurried down the corridor, one of the doors cracked open, and an old man stuck his head out.  
  
“You here for that Thompson fella?” he snapped.  
  
“Has it been like this the whole day?” Peggy asked.  
  
He snorted. “Since noon. Yeah, you tell him to cut that shit out, or else I come there myself and cram it up his-”  
  
“I’ll take care of it,” Peggy cut in, and continued down to Jack’s apartment.  
  
“You better! Goddamn sonuvabi-” The door slammed, but it made almost no difference, the noise was so loud.  
  
Peggy rapped at Jack’s door. The door was locked, but Peggy had lockpicks, and it was a bare minute before she popped the handle and swung out the door. A wall of sound nearly bowled her over. Grimacing, she stepped inside and let the door shut behind her.  
  
“Jack?” she called. The lights were off, despite it being past dusk. She flicked on the lights in the hall. There was a modern stove and sink to her right, fit into a small, tiled kitchen big enough for a square table and single chair. The living room had an armchair and a coffee table, and along the window, a table piled with paperwork.

Just beyond was the door to the bedroom, where most of the noise was coming from. Peggy didn’t hesitate, and quickly made her way to the doorway. “Jack?”  
  
The bedroom was awash in sound and darkness, but Peggy could make out the crumpled figure atop the bedspread, topped by a white mass; a pillow, she realized after a beat.  
  
“Jack,” she said again, and the figure shrunk, knees drawing up, shoulders hitching higher. After a moment, she walked to the edge of the bed, and touched his shoulder. He flinched.  
  
“Please, go,” he said, barely audible under the cacophony.  
  
Peggy regarded him, mouth pressed into a thin line. The raging of the radio and record player were unbearable, but so loud and nonsensical it was more white noise than anything. It was too loud to hear yourself think—which, she supposed, was why Jack had them turned up like that.  
  
“You can’t stay here,” Peggy said, and lay her hand more firmly on his arm. “Come on.”  
  
The pillow slipped from his grasp and toppled behind him; in the dark, his eyes were black holes. “They won’t shut _up_ ,” he said, cracked and uneven. “Everybody—the- the whole _damned_ city, they just keep thinking and _thinking_. God,” he moaned, hands like claws against his head. “God _please_ make them shut. Up!”  
  
There were dark streaks on his fingertips, down the sides of his face. Alarmed, Peggy realized he’d scratched his ears to bleeding.  
  
“I know, Jack, I know. It’s why I’m here,” she tried, tugging him upright. “We’re getting out of here.”  
  
His breath shuddered, and he made no move to stand.  
  
“Work with me here, Thompson,” she said tersely.  
  
“Just leave me alone.”  
  
“Like this? Don’t be dramatic,” Peggy snapped. She felt under his bed until she felt the smooth leather surface of his suitcase. Inside, the essentials were already packed, always ready to go in case of emergencies. She got to her feet and turned off the radio, then the record player, ignoring his shout of protest.  
  
“Leave it on, no!” Jack gave a strangled cry. “I can’t—I just want to be alone, Carter, just leave me alone, please, I’m begging—!”  
  
“ _No_!” Peggy shouted back, gripping his arm in one hand and his luggage in the other, shocked by the well of distress that rose in her chest. She towed them out of the bedroom and towards the door with grim determination. “I’m not leaving you here like this. The quicker we leave, the quicker we get you to someplace with less people.”  
  
“Don’t you get it, Peggy? I don’t want- I can’t- not _you_ , alright?” Jack shouted, high and tense.  
  
“What?” Peggy stopped and stared at him under the yellow hall light. Jack, half in shadow, cringed back, wild-eyed and pale, nothing like the smooth, confident jerk who she usually couldn’t be rid of.  
  
He gulped in a breath and retreated a half step. “I- I can’t take this,” he stammered. “But I’d rather— _this_ than…”  
  
An airless, ringing silence passed, so strange after the earlier discordance. Peggy barely breathed; the upset anger simmering under her skin swelled, but all she did was set the suitcase down and stalked over to Jack. He didn’t have time to dodge before she clamped one hand on the nape of his neck and jerked his head forward, just short of bumping their foreheads together.  
  
“I don’t mind, Jack. I don’t care. Go on, take a listen to my thoughts,” she challenged. “I don’t know what you expect to find in there, but you tell me if it upsets you, and we’ll deal with it. Alright?”  
  
His eyes, terrified and feverish, didn’t blink. “No… Peggy, I-”  
  
“It’s alright, Jack,” Peggy promised firmly. “It’s just me. You know me. And I know you.”  
  
He shuddered, and then his gaze unfocused. Peggy watched as his brows furrowed, watched as he grimaced, then smooth out the lines in his face. It wasn’t as if there was a physical indication that he was reading her mind—no itch, no pressure, nothing. The lab techs seemed to think the aftereffects of his encounter with the confiscated prototype were like a radio receiver, picking up any and all sundry thoughts within a certain radius. Perhaps, like a radio, he could tune into a single source of mental radio waves, they’d theorized. It would need more testing, but they seemed to be on the right track; after a moment, something in Jack seemed to unclench just a fraction.  
  
“That’s right,” she said, and his eyes snapped back to her. “Just focus on me.” He seemed a little more present, if still haunted.  
  
“You…” he said, low and cracked. When she glared at him fiercely, he didn’t seem to notice. He was occupied with her thoughts, after all, and knew what she was truly thinking.  
  
Peggy gave up, hefted the suitcase in one hand and looped her arm through his. “Yes, me,” she said, testy but relieved. “Steady on, let’s go. I’m taking you to Howard’s cottage in the Catskills. We can wait it out there, or until the lab comes up with a solution.”  
  
“Okay,” he said, biddable now that some relief had arrived. When they stepped into the outside corridor, he flinched, but she kept her pace steady, towing him out of the building step by step.  
  
“You keep your head on me, Jack,” she reminded him as she navigated them down the street and towards the car. He nodded, sickly pale and sweating, pressing his forehead against the glass as Peggy raced as fast as she could through the jammed city streets. It was gradual, but the further they rolled away from Manhattan, the more Jack’s shoulders unwound.  
  
They were across the Hudson and into the thickly wooded stretch of road now, and Jack had gone boneless in his seat. “Thanks, Peggy,” he slurred.  
  
She didn’t bother glancing away from the road before her, didn’t bother replying at all, in fact. Still, he must have heard something, because he gave a small huff of amusement before sleep overtook him between one thought and the next.  
  
All around them was silence but for the humming burr of the car as Peggy drove steadily through the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Additional thoughts [here](https://chouette.dreamwidth.org/151822.html#cutid2).


End file.
